Monday, July 25, 2016

Martine Zoer poses for a photo with her sons Tyler, 8, left, and Tristan, 5, as they wear and display some of the gender-neutral clothing she creates, in Mill Creek, Washington. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Pink for girls. Truck motifs for boys. A growing number of parents want to get outside those parameters when it comes to dressing their kids.

Kristin Higgins was adamant about not pushing "girly" stereotypes on her daughter, and painted her room in shades of green. Higgins later dressed her up in superhero costumes. But as her daughter got older, it took more work to locate items that broke the mold. For "Star Wars"-themed pajamas, she had to go to the boys' section.

"It's hard to find gender-neutral clothing," said Higgins, 35, of Little Rock, whose daughter is now 6. "I want her to just get up and put on the clothing without thinking of putting on a costume, an identity."

Eva St. Clair, left, and Rebecca Melsky pose for a portrait at Melsky's home in Washington. Melsky and St. Clair design dresses for Princess Awesome, a girls' clothing line that uses traditional boys' motifs such as trains, dinosaurs, ninjas, and planes. (AP Photo/Zach Gibson)

Shopping for her 7-month-old son, Higgins finds clothes mainly have pictures like fire engines or sharks. What about cats, cupcakes or hearts, she wonders.

For parents looking for clothes that defy gender norms, the options for back-to-school shopping are still limited -- but they're growing. Some big retailers like Lands' End and Zara are making small changes to their offerings, while some frustrated parents have launched their own companies to make the items they wanted to find.

"There is really a sharp divide between what is considered girls' stuff and what's considered boys' stuff," said Courtney Hartman. She started Seattle-based Jessy & Jack, a collection of unisex T-shirts for kids that have robots and dinosaurs, and Free to Be Kids, where a shirt with the slogan, "I'm a Cat Guy" comes in blue, gray and yellow.

Companies like Jessy & Jack and a collection called Princess Awesome, where dresses have trains and planes, are among nearly 20 online brands that formed a campaign called Clothes Without Limits last year that they're reprising for the back-to-school season. Still, many of the items are not cheap -- T-shirts at $20 can be pricey for growing kids.

Bigger companies are offering some options, after similar shifts in the toy and bedding aisles to more neutral signs and products. Lands' End launched a line of science T-shirts two years ago after a customer complained on social media that there was only one version for boys. As part of its new Cat & Jack brand of children's clothing that kids helped design, Target offers unisex-fit T-shirts online with slogans like, "Smart & Strong" and "Future Astronaut."

And fast-fashion chain Zara launched a collection in March for teens and older called "Ungendered" under its TRF line, which focuses on basics like T-shirts, sweatshirts and jeans. Experts and parents also notice that some images like dinosaurs are popping up on girls' clothing under the Boden brand and others.

More has changed for girls' clothes than for boys, but the vast majority of children's clothing is still gender-specific, says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market research group NPD Group Inc.

Martine Zoer, who founded Seattle-based Quirkie Kids because her sons wanted to wear pink, said that in response to her selling unisex shirts in that hue, she says she got emails saying "boys should not wear pink as it would turn them gay."

A good portion of children's clothing buyers are grandparents who tend to embrace more traditional ideas, says Cohen, who doesn't expect large-scale change until the next generation starts having children.

"Once we get past the cultural discussion, that's when you'll see the (major) brands step out," Cohen said. "No one wants to risk the chance of rocking the boat."

Chris Guerin of Portland, Oregon, says teaching his mother-in-law to buy clothes that don't reinforce gender stereotypes is a work in progress.

"When she goes shopping with Nana, she comes back with princess (outfits) and tiaras," Guerin says of his 3-year-old daughter. "We don't care for that. But it's hard to bring up the issue."

The differences crystallized in the late 1980s, according to Jo B. Paoletti, a professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland and author of "Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls from the Boys in America." Paoletti noticed it when buying clothing for her daughter, who was born in 1982, and her son, four years later. By the mid-1990s, "pink-washing was widespread," she said. Even disposable diapers came in blue and pink.

In part, manufacturers and marketers wanted to boost sales to American couples having fewer kids, Paoletti said. She also reasoned that parents were rebelling against the more unisex fashions like corduroy pants they grew up with. But Paoletti said the change is harmful.

"It encourages very young children -- as young as 2 -- to judge and interact with others in highly stereotyped ways," she said. "We know, based on nearly 50 years of social science research, that stereotyped thinking hurts all of us, whether we are dealing with racial, gender, or any other form of stereotype."

Macy's says kids' clothes are generally separated into boys' and girls' sections, but with an array of colors and styles in each. "A lot of kids' apparel today is active -- sweatpants and sweatshirts, graphic Ts, etc. -- and are inherently unisex," spokeswoman Holly Thomas said in an email.

Stores like J.C. Penney and Nordstrom say they listen to shoppers, but aren't getting customer requests to blur the gender lines.

Those behind the new brands say they're seeing the demand. Hartman said annual sales are pushing six-digit figures.

Higgins recalled that when her daughter was in day care, she came home crying because some boys made fun of her navy blue sneakers, calling them "boy shoes." She often puts together kid outfits from thrift shops, and as she thumbs through the racks reminds her daughter: "There are no boy colors. There are no girl colors."

MISSION STATEMENT

To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant.

Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry.

The Catholic-Judeo U. S. Supreme Court

5 Roman Catholics, 1 Episcopal (RC Light), and 3 Jews

Provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods

...our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p.451.

The Fresh Air Fund

THE FRESH AIR FUND, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. (Click on image to donate)

Sunset Calendar

Click on Picture for Sunset- Sunrise Calendar for your location.

Freedom

We do not have freedom because the Constitution gives it to us; The Creator gives us our rights. The Constitution was written to keep the government from taking our rights away. We have rights granted by God and not by men; such rights as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

THE HOLY BIBLE

The King James Version is in the public domain in the United States; you may copy and quote from it without restriction. The other Bibles at the Bible Gateway: (http://www.biblegateway.com), however, are not in the public domain, unless otherwise specified.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

(The Great Controversy), unveils the often unseen battle between Christ and Satan, and looks ahead to the day sin’s reign will end, and Jesus will rule as King of kings and Lord of lords.

THE SECRET TERRORISTS

"A secret terrorist organization has been working within to destroy America, its Constitution, and everything for which she stands"..(Click on pic)

The Enemy Unmasked

As one looks at the history of nations, from Babylon to Rome to America, it is evident that a Divine hand was protecting and guiding America..(Click on pic)

Foxe's Book of Martyrs

This book by John Foxe (1517 - 1587) is beyond doubt one of the great Christian classics in English- Read it on line (Click on Picture)

Fifty Years in The Church of Rome

The life story of Charles Chiniquy, who was a priest in the Roman Catholic Church for 25 years.

Earth's Final Hours

Click on image to read this book.

The Two Babylons

Where did the practices and beliefs of Roman Catholicism come from? In this scholarly classic, first published over eighty years ago, Alexander Hislop reveals that many Roman Catholic teachings did not originate with Christ or the Bible, but were adopted from ancient pagan Babylonian religion, and given Christian names. (Click on image to read online).

TOO LONG IN THE SUN

The book "Too Long in the Sun", traces pagan sun worship from the time of the Chaldeans, through the civilizations of the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Grecians, the Romans and right on through present day, documenting its influence upon modern day "Christianity."

ELLEN G. WHITE

The greatest want of the world is the want of men, --men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. -Education, p. 57. (1903)

Martin Luther

“The papacy is the seat of the true and real antichrist personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist."

Abraham Lincoln

I see a very dark cloud in our horizon. And that cloud is coming from Rome.

John Adams

"If ever an association of people deserved eternal damnation, on this earth and in hell, it is this society of Loyola." (1816)

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

GENERAL MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

It is my opinion that if the liberties of this country — the United States — are destroyed, it will be by the subtlety of the Roman Catholic Jesuit priests, for they are the most crafty, dangerous enemies to civil and religious liberty. They have instigated most of the wars in Europe.

Edmund Burke

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Luigi Desanctis

“In a country where there are Jesuits, they must either rule or the country must go to ruin… it is they who rule the world.”

GALILEO GALILEI

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

Miguel de Cervantes

"Our greatest foes, and those we must chiefly combat, are within."

Frederick Douglass

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

Eugenio María de Hostos

"I wish that they will say: In that island (Puerto Rico) a man was born who loved truth, desired justice, and worked for the good of men." Hostos wrote his own epitaph.

Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.”

Arturo Alfonso (Arthur) Schomburg

"The modern school without systematic lectures turns out many graduates who lack retention. No sooner has the sound of the word left their teacher's lips, the subject has been forgotten"

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (Lord Acton)

"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than the fact that the office sanctifies the holder of it."

Pastor Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

U.S.M.C.Major General Smedley Butler

“War is just a racket,” “A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.” (Click on photo to read his book)

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

EDWARD R. MURROW

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

John F. Kennedy

“The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. ”

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but morally treasonable to the American public."

W.E.B. DUBOIS

"Drunk with power, we (the U.S.) are leading the world to hell in a new colonialism with the same old human slavery, which once ruined us, to a third world war, which will ruin the world."

JOHN V. LINDSAY

There are men – now in power in this country – who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.

HENRY FORD

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

MARCUS M. GARVEY

"We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God -- God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the one God of all ages. That is the God in whom we believe, but we shall worship him through the spectacles of Ethiopia."

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."

ALAN BARTH

"The notion that the church, the press, and the universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist notion. In a free society these institutions must be wholly free -- which is to say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state."

EUGEN WEBER

"Wolves are wolves even if you choose to pretend they are chickens."

Craig Hulet

Is it progress when a cannibal uses a knife and fork?

Charles Goyette

"Just lay your freedom at out our feet, and we'll take care of everything for you."

GEORGE SANTAYANA

"He Who Does Not Remember History Is Condemned To Repeat It"

GEORGE ORWELL

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

ALDOUS HUXLEY

"...Ecclesiasticism without Christianity, the discipline of a monastic rule, not for God's sake or in order to achieve personal salvation but for the sake of the State and for the greater glory and power of the demagogue turned leader - this was the goal for which the systematic moving of the masses was to lead" (Brave New World Revisited, Huxley, 44-45)

Richard Maybury

Washington... has become an alien city-state that rules America, and much of the rest of the world, in the way that Rome ruled the Roman Empire.

Frank Zappa

"The illusion of freedom [in America] will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."

Sinclair Lewis

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

Sabbath Commercial for Television

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfgNbEzJ7ZY&feature=player_embedded

James D. Standish, Esq.

"The United Nations can be a tool to advance the cause of religious freedom."

THE HOLY INQUISITON

"Remember The Inquisition; It won't be long before the fires are ignited all over again". Arsenio [2007]

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.

“The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.”

Hillary R. Clinton

"What difference, at this point, does it make?!” -- At congressional panel on the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

Albert Pike

"To you, Sovereign Grand Instructors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees: 'the Masonic Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the LUCIFERIAN Doctrine. If Lucifer were not god, would Adonay (Jesus)... calumniate (spread false and harmful statements about) him?...Yes Lucifer is God..."

Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.

In fact, the four hundred and fifty years of the Society's history have been a record of fruitful association with the laity, in which the Ignatian spirit has manifested itself in the Church in many forms, and it continues to do so with vigor today.

Barack H. Obama

"Those nations that refuse to meet their obligations will be isolated, and denied the opportunity that comes with international integration" @ Prague 4/8/10

Pat Robertson

"The time has come when we must lay aside minor points of doctrinal differences and focus on the centralization of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

JIMMY CARTER

"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honoured that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."

Dr. José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado

"We need a program of psychosurgery for political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated."

Saul Alinsky

"Think globally, act locally"

Joseph Ratzinger

"The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, "supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls"

GEORGE W. BUSH

"Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."

WILLIAM J. LEVADA

"I'm past the deer-in-the-headlights phase,"

CHARLES EDWARD COUGHLIN

On this earth you must belong to the church militant or get the hell out of it. That's the right word. You're either with me or against me' There is no middle ground in this battle between Christ and the anti-Christ. If you step out of (the battle), you're worse than those boys who ran off to Norway, Sweden, those boys who deserted the government. You're deserters, rotten deserters.

ROBERT SCHULLER

"It is time for Protestants to go to the shepherd (the pope) and say, `What do we have to do to come home?'" Dr. Robert Schuller, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Sept. 19, 1987.

ADAM WEISHAUPT

Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. The hankering of the mind is irresistible.

DAVID SPANGLER

No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation.

ZBIGNIEW BRZENZINSKI

Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen...

HENRY KISSINGER

"We will get a New World Order. We may not get it in our generation, but if we do not get it in our generation, we will get it in the next generation."